Open at Adobe

Hi there.

Welcome to Open at Adobe, where we’ll try to keep you aware of the activities around openness. Open Specifications, Open Standards, Open Source.

It’s been an interesting time in my few months here. I must admit that my view of open access to all things Adobe was actually a bit negative. It seemed like Adobe was just YASG (Yet another Software Giant).

However, with a little searching, it becomes apparent that Adobe is both committed to growing communities and making things readily available.

A quick example or two. Last November (2006), Adobe released the code to Tamarin (the ActionScript™ Virtual Machine) to open source under the control of the Mozilla Foundation.

In January we started the process of moving the entire PDF specification into and through the formal standards process, working with ISO to do so. This specification has always been open and available, allows the creation of PDF tools. As we go through this process, and standards always take time, we will be releasing control of the future of PDF, and allowing it to be guided by a formal external process.

Adobe plays a role in several external projects as well. Within our Apollo project is Webkit. The source changes to webkit are available from opensource.adobe.com, and we will continue to work to make webkit a better, powerful product.

Adobe has a number of interesting places you can find out more, from discussion forums, access to prereleases, and cool new technologies.

Open Source stuff : http://opensource.adobe.com
Labs stuff: http://labs.adobe.com Be sure to check out Apollo in labs!

And of course this blog!

davemc